Sony UBP-X700 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Farerb]

The only issue I have is with Dune's disc. Everything else played fine including My Fair Lady, LotR extended editions and the Chamber of Secret.

[lifemotif]

We've had this player for 6 days, brand new from Bestbuy. It froze 7 times, 3 times today only, watching The Office blu rays?? I have tested everything. Oh, we bought it in a hurry because our UBP-X800 just died on us, showing us only the SONY logo at startup, no menu, but it reads discs and we can hear them through the coaxial output. (again, tried everything including opening it to hit the reset button on the main board, inconclusive) The 800 had a freezing habit too, 1-3 times a month, we've had it since September 2019. We tolerated it.

I am returning the 700 to the store and will buy the Panasonic 420. No need for Dolby Vision since we use projection, so no Panasonic 820. If someone has a better way, thanks for letting me know. I have looked at this thread a bit, so this seems like the way to go. Too bad it turned out this way.

[Alister_M]

Originally Posted by Farerb

The only issue I have is with Dune's disc. Everything else played fine including My Fair Lady, LotR extended editions and the Chamber of Secret.

That one played fine here The only ones that really had issues for me were Man of Steel (player froze up completely at 2nd layer change) and the third disc of House of the Dragon S1 (ending of last episode freezes, but doesn't crash the player). That one had the same issues on my backup player, which points to a defect in the disc itself.

[danny24]

Originally Posted by lifemotif

We've had this player for 6 days, brand new from Bestbuy. It froze 7 times, 3 times today only, watching The Office blu rays?? I have tested everything. Oh, we bought it in a hurry because our UBP-X800 just died on us, showing us only the SONY logo at startup, no menu, but it reads discs and we can hear them through the coaxial output. (again, tried everything including opening it to hit the reset button on the main board, inconclusive) The 800 had a freezing habit too, 1-3 times a month, we've had it since September 2019. We tolerated it.

I am returning the 700 to the store and will buy the Panasonic 420. No need for Dolby Vision since we use projection, so no Panasonic 820. If someone has a better way, thanks for letting me know. I have looked at this thread a bit, so this seems like the way to go. Too bad it turned out this way.

I am surprised you went with Sony again after having those freezing issues and the X800 bit the dust on you. I have an X1100ES that has this odd motherboard issue that if you put a Blu-ray in the player it shuts down. Start it up again same thing. Play a DVD and it stays on and plays it fine. I replaced the PSU and it still does the same thing. Basically their motherboards seem prone to several issues. The Panasonic player would likely perform better at the very least.

[mclellandj]

Is there a fix for the "stuck on Sony logo" issue? Or does that mean the player's dead?

[lifemotif]

Originally Posted by danny24

I am surprised you went with Sony again after having those freezing issues and the X800 bit the dust on you. I have an X1100ES that has this odd motherboard issue that if you put a Blu-ray in the player it shuts down. Start it up again same thing. Play a DVD and it stays on and plays it fine. I replaced the PSU and it still does the same thing. Basically their motherboards seem prone to several issues. The Panasonic player would likely perform better at the very least.

Well, we needed a player right away and the X700 was available in our area. But yeah, it's going out this week to be replaced by the Panny 420 we ordered.

Your Blu ray vs. DVD issue is very strange by the way, more so for a premium model... I really wanted to love Sony,

[Farerb]

Originally Posted by Alister_M

That one played fine here The only ones that really had issues for me were Man of Steel (player froze up completely at 2nd layer change) and the third disc of House of the Dragon S1 (ending of last episode freezes, but doesn't crash the player). That one had the same issues on my backup player, which points to a defect in the disc itself.

I also think the issue with Dune is with the disc itself. I plan to buy it again next year when it's released in a set with part 2.

[hoejunter]

My player is back to being selective about what discs it plays. Discs 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of Star Trek: Enterprise Season 1 play without any issue but disc 2 just refuses to play. Tried it on my PS5 and it worked first time. I even took the player apart and cleaned inside the disc drive.

[EinCB128]

Ugh, 12 Angry Men freezes on this and not my Series X. Usually happens a little over an hour into it.

Any reason why it shows "60p" when enabling Dolby Vision? Thanks.

[kath2833]

Originally Posted by kath2833

For my player, what I have found works in solving the freezing issue is removing the power cord in the back of the box for a minute then plugging it back in, turning the player on & inserting the disc. I've done that for 2 films that previously froze & have had no issue the entire way through.

this has worked wonders for me! Hope it helps others, good luck everyone!

[Paul Frith]

Hi
I'm not sure if someone has already mentioned this here but I've owned the UBP-X700 for over two years and have had no problems with 4K films freezing.

However, I recently purchased a RX-V4A receiver which the player is now connected to and the discs have started freezing at the mid-way point (I'm guessing when the disc switches between layers).

I've tried disconnecting from the receiver and playing the films through the TV and this resolves the issue! So the problem appears to be with the receiver

Does anyone know the reason for this?

[pikwik]

My player occasionally freezes for ~2 seconds during playback of some 4K discs; I too believe it's at the layer switch. I'm not sure I've noticed it during HD blu rays? My player is connected to a Denon X6700H. Other than that very rare and random issue, I'm very happy with the player. I think the image quality is great, especially on upscaled HD blu-ray. I watched Scream Factory's "Vice Squad" the other night and it looked wonderful.

[Alister_M]

Originally Posted by Paul Frith

I've tried disconnecting from the receiver and playing the films through the TV and this resolves the issue! So the problem appears to be with the receiver

Does anyone know the reason for this?

Originally Posted by pikwik

My player occasionally freezes for ~2 seconds during playback of some 4K discs; I too believe it's at the layer switch. I'm not sure I've noticed it during HD blu rays? My player is connected to a Denon X6700H.

Have you tried using the secondary HDMI for audio? That should solve the issue, if the receiver passthrough is indeed the problem.

[pointguard86]

Is there a way to adjust the black level? I made some comparison between X700 and PS5 and PS5's black level is richer.

[benji888578]

Originally Posted by pointguard86

Is there a way to adjust the black level? I made some comparison between X700 and PS5 and PS5's black level is richer.

I don’t think so, but, you could try changing the HDR settings and see if you get different results. Also ycbcr/rgb settings, display type, and other screen settings.

[wol-shiver]

Originally Posted by pointguard86

Is there a way to adjust the black level? I made some comparison between X700 and PS5 and PS5's black level is richer.

Press options during playback, there is a menu to make adjustments to processing. Does not work for DV.

But I highly doubt what you're seeing on PS5 is accurate.

[pointguard86]

Originally Posted by benji888578

I don’t think so, but, you could try changing the HDR settings and see if you get different results. Also ycbcr/rgb settings, display type, and other screen settings.

thanks, will try this tonight.

[pointguard86]

Originally Posted by wol-shiver

Press options during playback, there is a menu to make adjustments to processing. Does not work for DV.

But I highly doubt what you're seeing on PS5 is accurate.

will try this too, thanks!

[SlaughterX]

This doesnt play DVD-A, right?

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by SlaughterX

This doesnt play DVD-A, right?

Only plays SACD and not DVD-Audio. Also, I believe the player will not internally decode 7.1 lossless audio to 7.1 PCM, I believe down mixes to 2 channel PCM (however bitstreaming is fine with lossless support for 13.1 Dolby Atmos and 11.1 DTS X ). The advantage of the Sony UBP-X800M2 is that it plays both SACD’s and DVD-Audio and internally decodes 7.1 lossless audio to 7.1 PCM over HDMI. The Sony UBP-X800M2 has better build quality and better resell value. The only real advantage of the Sony UBP-X700 is that it is around $70 cheaper price. Some people like using the entry level Sony UBP-X700 in a small camper since the player has a DC input and the player is smaller in width and depth when compared to the larger Sony UBP-X800M2.

In the ideal world Sony should re-engineer all their optical disc players and stop making DVD players and release all new Blu-ray players. The BDA should mandate native 4K Blu-ray disc support from all new models of Blu-ray players starting at a certain date, but that might never happen. All 4K Blu-ray players since the year 2016 can upscale and downscale from any resolution between 480i to 4K (2160P) over HDMI to offer compatibility on any display. That is something that 4K Direct TV satellite boxes and 4K Roku Ultra boxes lack since they require 4K equipment to view 4K programming, without the ability to downscale native 4K to 1080P. Whereas native 4K Blu-ray players can downscale native 4K to any resolution to offer 100% compatibility with old equipment. It would be neat to see Sony mass produce a new 4K Blu-ray player that has the super small size of the BDP-S1700 with the ability to play 4K Blu-ray discs (the existing BDP-S1700 cannot play 4K Blu-ray discs). Of course, if the BDP-S1700 was re-engineered to play 4K Blu-ray discs it most likely would cost $99.99.

Maybe Sony will surprise people with new high-end native 8K Blu-ray players in 2026+, and all entry level Blu-ray players offering the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray feature (that would be a cool BDA mandate to greatly decrease consumer confusion).